13:52 | Arequipa, Jul. 03.
The city of Arequipa is getting ready to welcome more than 15,000 tourists during national holidays and mid-term vacations, the President of the Association of Tourism and Travel Agencies (Avit) Ana Maria Rojas informed.
The businesswoman did not rule out the possibility that July’s figures could increase due to visitors’ interest in knowing Arequipa’s tourist attractions such as Colca Valley, Santa Catalina Monastery, as well as downtown and countryside areas.
Domestic tourism is more extensive than foreign tourism in this period of the year, since Peruvians take advantage of national holidays and their vacation time to travel; many of them opt to visit cities in the country's southern region, such as Arequipa.
Arequipa’s Provincial Municipality, the Regional Management of Foreign Trade and Tourism and Avit have been working to verify the formal licensing of travel agencies with the aim of providing tourists with the necessary conditions to visit such region.
Inspections
On Thursday, officials from the said organizations visited three travel agencies and noticed one of them did not have the operating certificate granted by the Management of Foreign Trade and Tourism.
The other two had placed advertisements in public areas, so the Provincial Municipality notified the owners that they had to correct such situation.
Operations will continue over the weekend in order to disrupt informal travel agencies operating in downtown area, offering inadequate services to tourists and giving them a bad image of the city.
Arequipa currently has 75 travel agencies with the aforementioned operating certificate.
(END) RMC/JCR/MAO/RMB
Published: 7/3/2015